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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

From myth to truth: Native American Film Festival

Dan Webster

From almost the beginning of the U.S. film industry, mainstream America has been portraying — in most cases inventing portrayals — of its indigenous population. In recent years, though, artists representing that population — painters, photographers, poets, novelists and filmmakers — have been reworking their images. And, in the process, searching for something much closer to a truth.

That's likely what you can expect to find Oct. 11 at Sandpoint's Panida Theater when the Idaho Mythweaver will present its American Indian Film Festival. The event, which begins at 6 p.m., will include four films written and directed by native filmmakers: "Injunuity," "Indian Relay," "Grab" and the documentary feature "This May Be the Last Time."

In his review for Variety, film critic Guy Lodge wrote this about "This May Be the Last Time": "An Oklahoma-based son of the Seminole tribe himself, (filmmaker Sterlin) Harjo begins by matter-of-factly relating the story of his grandfather’s mysterious death in 1962 — a sincere pretext for a probing examination of the singular-sounding spiritual music that nursed his family through their grief." 

Tickets to the four-film program run $12 and are available in advance online, at various locations around Sandpoint and at the door.